Claim By Man Acquitted In Kate Steinle Killing Met With Skepticism

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS / AP) — A judge says he’s skeptical of a Mexican national’s claim that he’s a target of a vindictive federal prosecution because a San Francisco jury had acquitted him of murder in a case at the center of a heated national debate over immigration.

U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria said Tuesday that Jose Ines Garcia-Zarate faces an uphill battle proving federal gun charges were brought solely because of politics.

He had been released from jail weeks earlier despite federal immigration request to detain him for deportation. San Francisco’s so-called sanctuary city policy bars local cooperation with federal deportation efforts.